Localized device attestation

ABSTRACT

Various approaches for deploying and controlling distributed compute operations with the use of infrastructure processing units (IPUs) and similar networked processing units are disclosed. For example, a request to verify integrity of a device is received at a networking infrastructure device. A representation of device components of the device may be obtained. The representation of the device components may be compared with a reference value held by the networking infrastructure device. A response to the request may be transmitted based on matching the representation of the device components and the reference value. Here, the response indicates that the integrity of the device is intact.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/425,857, filed Nov. 16, 2022, and titled “COORDINATION OF DISTRIBUTED NETWORKED PROCESSING UNITS”, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments described herein generally relate to data processing, network communication, and communication system implementations of distributed computing, including the implementations with the use of networked processing units such as infrastructure processing units (IPUs) or data processing units (DPUs).

BACKGROUND

System architectures are moving to highly distributed multi-edge and multi-tenant deployments. Deployments may have different limitations in terms of power and space. Deployments also may use different types of compute, acceleration, and storage technologies in order to overcome these power and space limitations. Deployments also are typically interconnected in tiered and/or peer-to-peer fashion, in an attempt to create a network of connected devices and edge appliances that work together.

Edge computing, at a general level, has been described as systems that provide the transition of compute and storage resources closer to endpoint devices at the edge of a network (e.g., consumer computing devices, user equipment, etc.). As compute and storage resources are moved closer to endpoint devices, a variety of advantages have been promised such as reduced application latency, improved service capabilities, improved compliance with security or data privacy requirements, improved backhaul bandwidth, improved energy consumption, and reduced cost. However, many deployments of edge computing technologies—especially complex deployments for use by multiple tenants—have not been fully adopted.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. Like numerals having different letter suffixes may represent different instances of similar components. Some embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview of a distributed edge computing environment, according to an example.

FIG. 2 depicts computing hardware provided among respective deployment tiers in a distributed edge computing environment, according to an example.

FIG. 3 depicts additional characteristics of respective deployments tiers in a distributed edge computing environment, according to an example.

FIG. 4 depicts a computing system architecture including a compute platform and a network processing platform provided by an infrastructure processing unit, according to an example.

FIG. 5 depicts an infrastructure processing unit arrangement operating as a distributed network processing platform within network and data center edge settings, according to an example.

FIG. 6 depicts functional components of an infrastructure processing unit and related services, according to an example.

FIG. 7 depicts a block diagram of example components in an edge computing system which implements a distributed network processing platform, according to an example.

FIG. 8 depicts a system including a device for localized device attestation, according to an example.

FIG. 9 depicts an arrangement of an attestation service and attestation agent, according to an example.

FIG. 10 depicts a method for localized device attestation, according to an example.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Edge deployments often involve many devices from a variety of operators and manufacturers. Such homogeneity presents challenges when ensuring the integrity or security of the devices and software that runs thereon. Generally, current techniques actively monitor integrity or security parameters of these devices using a centralized attestation facility. The centralized attestation generally involves transporting measurements or assertions to a central compute system (e.g., server, cloud service, etc.) where vast data is analyzed (e.g., in runtime attestation scenarios). When deployments include thousands or millions of devices, the data being analyzed, and traffic generated by this data becomes massive.

The data being processed may include trusted platform management (TPM) quotes per component (e.g., piece of hardware and software) in the stack (e.g., edge device, sensor, intermediary network nodes, servers, etc.). Thus, perhaps hundreds of TPM quotes are multiplied by millions of devices to verify the integrity of deployed devices. The TPM quotes are compared with reference images (e.g., “golden images”) at the central facility to determine whether the stack component integrity is intact. Here, a reference image is a reference of integrity. For example, a software component may be hashed to produce the portion of the reference image that corresponds to a correct version of the software. For a stack, a series (e.g., vector) of hashes may be used to verify the integrity of the stack. For large deployments, the infrastructure implementing remote attestation—including the continual receipt and processing of the TPM data—suffers.

To address the issues noted above regarding large scale integrity verification in large and diverse deployments, integrity verification may be moved to network processing units distributed throughout the network. Here, the inherent proximity to network traffic and distribution throughout the network enables network processing unit-based integrity checking to implement verification to a smaller set of devices. Moreover, corrective action may be taken against devices that fail the integrity check, eliminating the impact of these device on the network. In an example, the network processing unit includes a data set of selective reference images for devices connected, or likely connected, to the network processing unit. This enables the network processing unit to perform integrity checking even when disconnected from a central clearinghouse of reference images.

The network processing unit may then use the local reference images data set to perform integrity checking and, if an integrity check has failed, to act upon such failure. When, for example, the network processing unit is part of a switch, router, or gateway, the network processing unit may prevent traffic from the failed device to traverse the network processing unit or the device to which the network processing unit is installed. In an example, the network processing unit may notify a switch, router, or gateway of the failure to prevent the use of the compromised device on the network. The division of integrity attestation among a distributed set of network processing units or similar network devices enables scaling of these services in accordance with the number of devices serviced.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram 100 showing an overview of a distributed edge computing environment, which may be adapted for implementing the present techniques for distributed networked processing units. As shown, the edge cloud 110 is established from processing operations among one or more edge locations, such as a satellite vehicle 141, a base station 142, a network access point 143, an on premise server 144 or on premise server 150, a network gateway 145, or similar networked devices and equipment instances. These processing operations may be coordinated by one or more edge computing platforms 120 or systems that operate networked processing units (e.g., IPUs, DPUs) as discussed herein.

The edge cloud 110 is generally defined as involving compute that is located closer to endpoints 160 (e.g., consumer and producer data sources) than the cloud 130, such as autonomous vehicles 161, user equipment 162, business and industrial equipment 163, video capture devices 164, drones 165, smart cities and building devices 166, sensors and IoT devices 167, etc. Compute, memory, network, and storage resources that are offered at the entities in the edge cloud 110 can provide ultra-low or improved latency response times for services and functions used by the endpoint data sources as well as reduce network backhaul traffic from the edge cloud 110 toward cloud 130 thus improving energy consumption and overall network usages among other benefits.

Compute, memory, and storage are scarce resources, and generally decrease depending on the edge location (e.g., fewer processing resources being available at consumer end point devices than at a base station or a central office data center). As a general design principle, edge computing attempts to minimize the number of resources needed for network services, through the distribution of more resources that are located closer both geographically and in terms of in-network access time.

FIG. 2 depicts examples of computing hardware provided among respective deployment tiers in a distributed edge computing environment. Here, one tier at an on-premise edge system is an intelligent sensor or gateway tier 210, which operates network devices with low power and entry-level processors and low-power accelerators. Another tier at an on-premise edge system is an intelligent edge tier 220, which operates edge nodes with higher power limitations and may include a high-performance storage.

Further in the network, a network edge tier 230 operates servers including form factors optimized for extreme conditions (e.g., outdoors). A data center edge tier 240 operates additional types of edge nodes such as servers, and includes increasingly powerful or capable hardware and storage technologies. Still further in the network, a core data center tier 250 and a public cloud tier 260 operate compute equipment with the highest power consumption and largest configuration of processors, acceleration, storage/memory devices, and highest throughput network.

In each of these tiers, various forms of Intel® processor lines are depicted for purposes of illustration; it will be understood that other brands and manufacturers of hardware will be used in real-world deployments. Additionally, it will be understood that additional features or functions may exist among multiple tiers. One such example is connectivity and infrastructure management that enable a distributed IPU architecture, that can potentially extend across all of tiers 210, 220, 230, 240, 250, 260. Other relevant functions that may extend across multiple tiers may relate to security features, domain or group functions, and the like.

FIG. 3 depicts additional characteristics of respective deployment tiers in a distributed edge computing environment, based on the tiers discussed with reference to FIG. 2 . This figure depicts additional network latencies at each of the tiers 210, 220, 230, 240, 250, 260, and the gradual increase in latency in the network as the compute is located at a longer distance from the edge endpoints. Additionally, this figure depicts additional power and form factor constraints, use cases, and key performance indicators (KPIs).

With these variations and service features in mind, edge computing within the edge cloud 110 may provide the ability to serve and respond to multiple applications of the use cases in real-time or near real-time and meet ultra-low latency requirements. As systems have become highly-distributed, networking has become one of the fundamental pieces of the architecture that allow achieving scale with resiliency, security, and reliability. Networking technologies have evolved to provide more capabilities beyond pure network routing capabilities, including to coordinate quality of service, security, multi-tenancy, and the like. This has also been accelerated by the development of new smart network adapter cards and other type of network derivatives that incorporated capabilities such as ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) or FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) to accelerate some of those functionalities (e.g., remote attestation).

In these contexts, networked processing units have begun to be deployed at network cards (e.g., smart NICs), gateways, and the like, which allow direct processing of network workloads and operations. One example of a networked processing unit is an infrastructure processing unit (IPU), which is a programmable network device that can be extended to provide compute capabilities with far richer functionalities beyond pure networking functions. Another example of a network processing unit is a data processing unit (DPU), which offers programmable hardware for performing infrastructure and network processing operations. The following discussion refers to functionality applicable to an IPU configuration, such as that provided by an Intel® line of IPU processors. However, it will be understood that functionality will be equally applicable to DPUs and other types of networked processing units provided by ARM®, Nvidia®, and other hardware OEMs.

FIG. 4 depicts an example compute system architecture that includes a compute platform 420 and a network processing platform comprising an IPU 410. This architecture—and in particular the IPU 410—can be managed, coordinated, and orchestrated by the functionality discussed below, including with the functions described with reference to FIG. 6 .

The main compute platform 420 is composed by typical elements that are included with a computing node, such as one or more CPUs 424 that may or may not be connected via a coherent domain (e.g. via Ultra Path Interconnect (UPI) or another processor interconnect); one or more memory units 425; one or more additional discrete devices 426 such as storage devices, discrete acceleration cards (e.g. an FPGA, a visual processing unit (VPU), etc.); a baseboard management controller 421; and the like. The compute platform 420 may operate one or more containers 422 (e.g., with one or more microservices), within a container runtime 423 (e.g., Docker container). The IPU 410 operates as a networking interface and is connected to the compute platform 420 using an interconnect (e.g., using either PCIe or CXL). The IPU 410, in this context, can be observed as another small compute device that has its own: (1) Processing cores (e.g., provided by low-power cores 417), (2) operating system (OS) and cloud native platform 414 to operate one or more containers 415 and a container runtime 416; (3) Acceleration functions provided by an ASIC 411 or FPGA 412; (4) Memory 418; (5) Network functions provided by network circuitry 413; etc.

From a system design perspective, this arrangement provides important functionality. The IPU 410 is seen as a discrete device from the local host (e.g., the OS running in the compute platform CPUs 424) that is available to provide certain functionalities (networking, acceleration etc.). Those functionalities are typically provided via Physical or Virtual PCIe functions. Additionally, the IPU 410 is seen as a host (with its own IP etc.) that can be accessed by the infrastructure to setup an OS, run services, and the like. The IPU 410 sees all the traffic going to the compute platform 420 and can perform actions—such as intercepting the data or performing some transformation—as long as the correct security credentials are hosted to decrypt the traffic. Traffic going through the IPU goes to all the layers of the Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI model) stack (e.g., from physical to application layer). Depending on the features that the IPU has, processing may be performed at the transport layer only. However, if the IPU has capabilities to perform traffic intercept, then the IPU also may be able to intercept traffic at the traffic layer (e.g., intercept CDN traffic and process it locally).

Some of the use cases being proposed for IPUs and similar networked processing units include: to accelerate network processing; to manage hosts (e.g., in a data center); or to implement quality of service policies. However, most of functionalities today are focused at using the IPU at the local appliance level and within a single system. These approaches do not address how the IPUs could work together in a distributed fashion or how system functionalities can be divided among the IPUs on other parts of the system. Accordingly, the following introduces enhanced approaches for enabling and controlling distributed functionality among multiple networked processing units. This enables the extension of current IPU functionalities to work as a distributed set of IPUs that can work together to achieve stronger features such as, resiliency, reliability, etc.

Distributed Architectures of IPUs

FIG. 5 depicts an IPU arrangement operating as a distributed network processing platform within network and data center edge settings. In a first deployment model of a computing environment 510, workloads or processing requests are directly provided to an IPU platform, such as directly to IPU 514. In a second deployment model of the computing environment 510, workloads or processing requests are provided to some intermediate processing device 512, such as a gateway or NUC (next unit of computing) device form factor, and the intermediate processing device 512 forwards the workloads or processing requests to the IPU 514. It will be understood that a variety of other deployment models involving the composability and coordination of one or more IPUs, compute units, network devices, and other hardware may be provided.

With the first deployment model, the IPU 514 directly receives data from use cases 502A. The IPU 514 operates one or more containers with microservices to perform processing of the data. As an example, a small gateway (e.g., a NUC type of appliance) may connect multiple cameras to an edge system that is managed or connected by the IPU 514. The IPU 514 may process data as a small aggregator of sensors that runs on the far edge, or may perform some level of inline or preprocessing and that sends payload to be further processed by the IPU or the system that the IPU connects.

With the second deployment model, the intermediate processing device 512 provided by the gateway or NUC receives data from use cases 502B. The intermediate processing device 512 includes various processing elements (e.g., CPU cores, GPUs), and may operate one or more microservices for servicing workloads from the use cases 502B. However, the intermediate processing device 512 invokes the IPU 514 to complete processing of the data.

In either the first or the second deployment model, the IPU 514 may connect with a local compute platform, such as that provided by a CPU 516 (e.g., Intel® Xeon CPU) operating multiple microservices. The IPU may also connect with a remote compute platform, such as that provided at a data center by CPU 540 at a remote server. As an example, consider a microservice that performs some analytical processing (e.g., face detection on image data), where the CPU 516 and the CPU 540 provide access to this same microservice. The IPU 514, depending on the current load of the CPU 516 and the CPU 540, may decide to forward the images or payload to one of the two CPUs. Data forwarding or processing can also depend on other factors such as SLA for latency or performance metrics (e.g., perf/watt) in the two systems. As a result, the distributed IPU architecture may accomplish features of load balancing.

The IPU in the computing environment 510 may be coordinated with other network-connected IPUs. In an example, a Service and Infrastructure orchestration manager 530 may use multiple IPUs as a mechanism to implement advanced service processing schemes for the user stacks. This may also enable implementing of system functionalities such as failover, load balancing etc.

In a distributed architecture example, IPUs can be arranged in the following non-limiting configurations. As a first configuration, a particular IPU (e.g., IPU 514) can work with other IPUs (e.g., IPU 520) to implement failover mechanisms. For example, an IPU can be configured to forward traffic to service replicas that runs on other systems when a local host does not respond.

As a second configuration, a particular IPU (e.g., IPU 514) can work with other IPUs (e.g., IPU 520) to perform load balancing across other systems. For example, consider a scenario where CDN traffic targeted to the local host is forwarded to another host in case that I/O or compute in the local host is scarce at a given moment.

As a third configuration, a particular IPU (e.g., IPU 514) can work as a power management entity to implement advanced system policies. For example, consider a scenario where the whole system (e.g., including CPU 516) is placed in a C6 state (a low-power/power-down state available to a processor) while forwarding traffic to other systems (e.g., IPU 520) and consolidating it.

As will be understood, fully coordinating a distributed IPU architecture requires numerous aspects of coordination and orchestration. The following examples of system architecture deployments provide discussion of how edge computing systems may be adapted to include coordinated IPUs, and how such deployments can be orchestrated to use IPUs at multiple locations to expand to the new envisioned functionality.

Distributed IPU Functionality

An arrangement of distributed IPUs offers a set of new functionalities to enable IPUs to be service focused. FIG. 6 depicts functional components of an IPU 610, including services and features to implement the distributed functionality discussed herein. It will be understood that some or all of the functional components provided in FIG. 6 may be distributed among multiple IPUs, hardware components, or platforms, depending on the particular configuration and use case involved.

In the block diagram of FIG. 6 , a number of functional components are operated to manage requests for a service running in the IPU (or running in the local host). As discussed above, IPUs can either run services or intercept requests arriving to services running in the local host and perform some action. In the latter case, the IPU can perform the following types of actions/functions (provided as a non-limiting examples).

Peer Discovery. In an example, each IPU is provided with Peer Discovery logic to discover other IPUs in the distributed system that can work together with it. Peer Discovery logic may use mechanisms such as broadcasting to discover other IPUs that are available on a network. The Peer Discovery logic is also responsible to work with the Peer Attestation and Authentication logic to validate and authenticate the peer IPU's identity, determine whether they are trustworthy, and whether the current system tenant allows the current IPU to work with them. To accomplish this, an IPU may perform operations such as: retrieve a proof of identity and proof of attestation; connect to a trusted service running in a trusted server; or, validate that the discovered system is trustworthy. Various technologies (including hardware components or standardized software implementations) that enable attestation, authentication, and security may be used with such operations.

Peer Attestation. In an example, each IPU provides interfaces to other IPUs to enable attestation of the IPU itself. IPU Attestation logic is used to perform an attestation flow within a local IPU in order to create the proof of identity that will be shared with other IPUs. Attestation here may integrate previous approaches and technologies to attest a compute platform. This may also involve the use of trusted attestation service 640 to perform the attestation operations.

Functionality Discovery. In an example, a particular IPU includes capabilities to discover the functionalities that peer IPUs provide. Once the authentication is done, the IPU can determine what functionalities that the peer IPUs provide (using the IPU Peer Discovery Logic) and store a record of such functionality locally. Examples of properties to discover can include: (i) Type of IPU and functionalities provided and associated KPIs (e.g. performance/watt, cost etc.); (ii) Available functionalities as well as possible functionalities to execute under secure enclaves (e.g. enclaves provided by Intel® SGX or TDX technologies); (iii) Current services that are running on the IPU and on the system that can potentially accept requests forwarded from this IPU; or (iv) Other interfaces or hooks that are provided by an IPU, such as: Access to remote storage; Access to a remote VPU; Access to certain functions. In a specific example, service may be described by properties such as: UUID; Estimated performance KPIs in the host or IPU; Average performance provided by the system during the N units of time (or any other type of indicator); and like properties.

Service Management. The IPU includes functionality to manage services that are running either on the host compute platform or in the IPU itself. Managing (orchestration) services includes performance service and resource orchestration for the services that can run on the IPU or that the IPU can affect. Two type of usage models are envisioned:

External Orchestration Coordination. The IPU may enable external orchestrators to deploy services on the IPU compute capabilities. To do so, an IPU includes a component similar to K8 compatible APIs to manage the containers (services) that run on the IPU itself. For example, the IPU may run a service that is just providing content to storage connected to the platform. In this case, the orchestration entity running in the IPU may manage the services running in the IPU as it happens in other systems (e.g. keeping the service level objectives).

Further, external orchestrators can be allowed to register to the IPU that services are running on the host may require to broker requests, implement failover mechanisms and other functionalities. For example, an external orchestrator may register that a particular service running on the local compute platform is replicated in another edge node managed by another IPU where requests can be forwarded.

In this later use case external orchestrators may provide to the Service/Application Intercept logic the inputs that are needed to intercept traffic for these services (as typically is encrypted). This may include properties such as a source and destination traffic of the traffic to be intercepted, or the key to use to decrypt the traffic. Likewise, this may be needed to terminate TLS to understand the requests that arrive to the IPU and that the other logics may need to parse to take actions. For example, if there is a CDN read request the IPU may need to decrypt the packet to understand that network packet includes a read request and may redirect it to another host based on the content that is being intercepted. Examples of Service/Application Intercept information is depicted in table 620 in FIG. 6 .

External Orchestration Implementation. External orchestration can be implemented in multiple topologies. One supported topology includes having the orchestrator managing all the IPUs running on the backend public or private cloud. Another supported topology includes having the orchestrator managing all the IPUs running in a centralized edge appliance. Still another supported topology includes having the orchestrator running in another IPU that is working as the controller or having the orchestrator running distributed in multiple other IPUs that are working as controllers (master/primary node), or in a hierarchical arrangement.

Functionality for Broker requests. The IPU may include Service Request Brokering logic and Load Balancing logic to perform brokering actions on arrival for requests of target services running in the local system. For instance, the IPU may decide to see if those requests can be executed by other peer systems (e.g., accessible through Service and Infrastructure Orchestration 630). This can be caused, for example, because load in the local systems is high. The local IPU may negotiate with other peer IPUs for the possibility to forward the request. Negotiation may involve metrics such as cost. Based on such negotiation metrics, the IPU may decide to forward the request.

Functionality for Load Balancing requests. The Service Request Brokering and Load Balancing logic may distribute requests arriving to the local IPU to other peer IPUs. In this case, the other IPUs and the local IPU work together and do not necessarily need brokering. Such logic acts similar to a cloud native sidecar proxy. For instance, requests arriving to the system may be sent to the service X running in the local system (either IPU or compute platform) or forwarded to a peer IPU that has another instance of service X running. The load balancing distribution can be based on existing algorithms such as based on the systems that have lower load, using round robin, etc.

Functionality for failover, resiliency and reliability. The IPU includes Reliability and Failover logic to monitor the status of the services running on the compute platform or the status of the compute platform itself. The Reliability and Failover logic may require the Load Balancing logic to transiently or permanently forward requests that aim specific services in situations such as where: i) The compute platform is not responding; ii) The service running inside the compute node is not responding; and iii) The compute platform load prevents the targeted service to provide the right level of service level objectives (SLOs). Note that the logic must know the required SLOs for the services. Such functionality may be coordinated with service information 650 including SLO information.

Functionality for executing parts of the workloads. Use cases such as video analytics tend to be decomposed in different microservices that conform a pipeline of actions that can be used together. The IPU may include a workload pipeline execution logic that understands how workloads are composed and manage their execution. Workloads can be defined as a graph that connects different microservices. The load balancing and brokering logic may be able to understand those graphs and decide what parts of the pipeline are executed where. Further, to perform these and other operations, Intercept logic will also decode what requests are included as part of the requests.

Resource Management

A distributed network processing configuration may enable IPUs to perform important role for managing resources of edge appliances. As further shown in FIG. 6 , the functional components of an IPU can operate to perform these and similar types of resource management functionalities.

As a first example, an IPU can provide management or access to external resources that are hosted in other locations and expose them as local resources using constructs such as Compute Express Link (CXL). For example, the IPU could potentially provide access to a remote accelerator that is hosted in a remote system via CXL.mem/cache and IO. Another example includes providing access to remote storage device hosted in another system. In this later case the local IPU could work with another IPU in the storage system and expose the remote system as PCIE virtual function(s) (VF)/physical function(s) (PF) to the local host.

As a second example, an IPU can provide access to IPU-specific resources. Those IPU resource may be physical (such as storage or memory) or virtual (such as a service that provides access to random number generation).

As a third example, an IPU can manage local resources that are hosted in the system where it belongs. For example, the IPU can manage power of the local compute platform.

As a fourth example, an IPU can provide access to other type of elements that relate to resources (such as telemetry or other types of data). In particular, telemetry provides useful data for something that is needed to decide where to execute things or to identify problems.

I/O Management. Because the IPU is acting as a connection proxy between the external peers (compute systems, remote storage etc.) resources and the local compute, the IPU can also include functionality to manage I/O from the system perspective.

Host Virtualization and XPU Pooling. The IPU includes Host Virtualization and XPU Pooling logic responsible to manage the access to resources that are outside the system domain (or within the IPU) and that can be offered to the local compute system. Here, “XPU” refers to any type of a processing unit, whether CPU, GPU, VPU, an acceleration processing unit, etc. The IPU logic, after discovery and attestation, can agree with other systems to share external resources with the services running in the local system. IPUs may advertise to other peers available resources or can be discovered during discovery phase as introduced earlier. IPUs may request to other IPUS to those resources. For example, an IPU on system A may request access to storage on system B manage by another IPU. Remote and local IPUs can work together to establish a connection between the target resources and the local system.

Once the connection and resource mapping is completed, resources can be exposed to the services running in the local compute node using the VF/PF PCIE and CXL Logic. Each of those resources can be offered as VF/PF. The IPU logic can expose to the local host resources that are hosted in the IPU. Examples of resources to expose may include local accelerators, access to services, and the like.

Power Management. Power management is one of the key features to achieve favorable system operational expenditures (OPEXs). IPU is very well positioned to optimize power consumption that the local system is consuming. The Distributed and local power management unit is responsible for metering the power that the system is consuming, the load that the system is receiving and track the service level agreements that the various services running in the system are achieving for the arriving requests. Likewise, when power efficiencies (e.g., power usage effectiveness (PUE)) are not achieving certain thresholds or the local compute demand is low, the IPU may decide to forward the requests to local services to other IPUs that host replicas of the services. Such power management features may also coordinate with the Brokering and Load Balancing logic discussed above. As will be understood, IPUs can work together to decide where requests can be consolidated to establish higher power efficiency as system. When traffic is redirected, the local power consumption can be reduced in different ways. Example operations that can be performed include: changing the system to C6 State; changing the base frequencies; performing other adaptations of the system or system components.

Telemetry Metrics. The IPU can generate multiple types of metrics that can be interesting from services, orchestration or tenants owning the system. In various examples, telemetry can be accessed, including: (i) Out of band via side interfaces; (ii) In band by services running in the IPU; or (iii) Out of band using PCIE or CXL from the host perspective. Relevant types of telemetries can include: Platform telemetry; Service Telemetry; IPU telemetry; Traffic telemetry; and the like.

System Configurations for Distributed Processing

Further to the examples noted above, the following configurations may be used for processing with distributed IPUs:

1) Local IPUs connected to a compute platform by an interconnect (e.g., as shown in the configuration of FIG. 4 );

2) Shared IPUs hosted within a rack/physical network—such as in a virtual slice or multi-tenant implementation of IPUs connected via CXL/PCI-E (local), or extension via Ethernet/Fiber for nodes within a cluster;

3) Remote IPUs accessed via an IP Network, such as within certain latency for data plane offload/storage offloads (or, connected for management/control plane operations); or

4) Distributed IPUs providing an interconnected network of IPUs, including as many as hundreds of nodes within a domain.

Configurations of distributed IPUs working together may also include fragmented distributed IPUs, where each IPU or pooled system provides part of the functionalities, and each IPU becomes a malleable system. Configurations of distributed IPUs may also include virtualized IPUs, such as provided by a gateway, switch, or an inline component (e.g., inline between the service acting as IPU), and in some examples, in scenarios where the system has no IPU.

Other deployment models for IPUs may include IPU-to-IPU in the same tier or a close tier; IPU-to-IPU in the cloud (data to compute versus compute to data); integration in small device form factors (e.g., gateway IPUs); gateway/NUC+IPU which connects to a data center; multiple GW/NUC (e.g. 16) which connect to one IPU (e.g. switch); gateway/NUC+IPU on the server; and GW/NUC and IPU that are connected to a server with an IPU.

The preceding distributed IPU functionality may be implemented among a variety of types of computing architectures, including one or more gateway nodes, one or more aggregation nodes, or edge or core data centers distributed across layers of the network (e.g., in the arrangements depicted in FIGS. 2 and 3 ). Accordingly, such IPU arrangements may be implemented in an edge computing system by or on behalf of a telecommunication service provider (“telco”, or “TSP”), internet-of-things service provider, cloud service provider (CSP), enterprise entity, or any other number of entities. Various implementations and configurations of the edge computing system may be provided dynamically, such as when orchestrated to meet service objectives. Such edge computing systems may be embodied as a type of device, appliance, computer, or other “thing” capable of communicating with other edge, networking, or endpoint components.

FIG. 7 depicts a block diagram of example components in a computing device 750 which can operate as a distributed network processing platform. The computing device 750 may include any combinations of the components referenced above, implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), as a package or system-on-chip (SoC), or as portions thereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, instruction sets, programmable logic or algorithms, hardware, hardware accelerators, software, firmware, or a combination thereof adapted in the computing device 750, or as components otherwise incorporated within a larger system. Specifically, the computing device 750 may include processing circuitry comprising one or both of a network processing unit 752 (e.g., an IPU or DPU, as discussed above) and a compute processing unit 754 (e.g., a CPU).

The network processing unit 752 may provide a networked specialized processing unit such as an IPU, DPU, network processing unit (NPU), or other “xPU” outside of the central processing unit (CPU). The processing unit may be embodied as a standalone circuit or circuit package, integrated within an SoC, integrated with networking circuitry (e.g., in a SmartNIC), or integrated with acceleration circuitry, storage devices, or AI or specialized hardware, consistent with the examples above.

The compute processing unit 754 may provide a processor as a central processing unit (CPU) microprocessor, multi-core processor, multithreaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embedded processor, or other forms of a special purpose processing unit or specialized processing unit for compute operations.

Either the network processing unit 752 or the compute processing unit 754 may be a part of a system on a chip (SoC) which includes components formed into a single integrated circuit or a single package. The network processing unit 752 or the compute processing unit 754 and accompanying circuitry may be provided in a single socket form factor, multiple socket form factor, or a variety of other formats.

The processing units 752, 754 may communicate with a system memory 756 (e.g., random access memory (RAM)) over an interconnect 755 (e.g., a bus). In an example, the system memory 756 may be embodied as volatile (e.g., dynamic random access memory (DRAM), etc.) memory. Any number of memory devices may be used to provide for a given amount of system memory. A storage 758 may also couple to the processor 752 via the interconnect 755 to provide for persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, and so forth. In an example, the storage 758 may be implemented as non-volatile storage such as a solid-state disk drive (SSD).

The components may communicate over the interconnect 755. The interconnect 755 may include any number of technologies, including industry-standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), Compute Express Link (CXL), or any number of other technologies. The interconnect 755 may couple the processing units 752, 754 to a transceiver 766, for communications with connected edge devices 762.

The transceiver 766 may use any number of frequencies and protocols. For example, a wireless local area network (WLAN) unit may implement Wi-Fi® communications in accordance with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard, or a wireless wide area network (WWAN) unit may implement wireless wide area communications according to a cellular, mobile network, or other wireless wide area protocol. The wireless network transceiver 766 (or multiple transceivers) may communicate using multiple standards or radios for communications at a different range. A wireless network transceiver 766 (e.g., a radio transceiver) may be included to communicate with devices or services in the edge cloud 110 or the cloud 130 via local or wide area network protocols.

The communication circuitry (e.g., transceiver 766, network interface 768, external interface 770, etc.) may be configured to use any one or more communication technology (e.g., wired or wireless communications) and associated protocols (e.g., a cellular networking protocol such a 3GPP 4G or 5G standard, a wireless local area network protocol such as IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi®, a wireless wide area network protocol, Ethernet, Bluetooth®, Bluetooth Low Energy, an IoT protocol such as IEEE 802.15.4 or ZigBee®, Matter®, low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) or low-power wide-area (LPWA) protocols, etc.) to effect such communication. Given the variety of types of applicable communications from the device to another component or network, applicable communications circuitry used by the device may include or be embodied by any one or more of components 766, 768, or 770. Accordingly, in various examples, applicable means for communicating (e.g., receiving, transmitting, etc.) may be embodied by such communications circuitry.

The computing device 750 may include or be coupled to acceleration circuitry 764, which may be embodied by one or more AI accelerators, a neural compute stick, neuromorphic hardware, an FPGA, an arrangement of GPUs, one or more SoCs, one or more CPUs, one or more digital signal processors, dedicated ASICs, or other forms of specialized processors or circuitry designed to accomplish one or more specialized tasks. These tasks may include AI processing (including machine learning, training, inferencing, and classification operations), visual data processing, network data processing, object detection, rule analysis, or the like. Accordingly, in various examples, applicable means for acceleration may be embodied by such acceleration circuitry.

The interconnect 755 may couple the processing units 752, 754 to a sensor hub or external interface 770 that is used to connect additional devices or subsystems. The devices may include sensors 772, such as accelerometers, level sensors, flow sensors, optical light sensors, camera sensors, temperature sensors, global navigation system (e.g., GPS) sensors, pressure sensors, pressure sensors, and the like. The hub or interface 770 further may be used to connect the edge computing node 750 to actuators 774, such as power switches, valve actuators, an audible sound generator, a visual warning device, and the like.

In some optional examples, various input/output (I/O) devices may be present within or connected to, the edge computing node 750. For example, a display or other output device 784 may be included to show information, such as sensor readings or actuator position. An input device 786, such as a touch screen or keypad may be included to accept input. An output device 784 may include any number of forms of audio or visual display, including simple visual outputs such as LEDs or more complex outputs such as display screens (e.g., LCD screens), with the output of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, and the like being generated or produced from the operation of the edge computing node 750.

A battery 776 may power the edge computing node 750, although, in examples in which the edge computing node 750 is mounted in a fixed location, it may have a power supply coupled to an electrical grid, or the battery may be used as a backup or for temporary capabilities. A battery monitor/charger 778 may be included in the edge computing node 750 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 776. The battery monitor/charger 778 may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 776 to provide failure predictions, such as the state of health (SoH) and the state of function (SoF) of the battery 776. A power block 780, or other power supply coupled to a grid, may be coupled with the battery monitor/charger 778 to charge the battery 776.

In an example, the instructions 782 on the processing units 752, 754 (separately, or in combination with the instructions 782 of the machine-readable medium 760) may configure execution or operation of a trusted execution environment (TEE) 790. In an example, the TEE 790 operates as a protected area accessible to the processing units 752, 754 for secure execution of instructions and secure access to data. Other aspects of security hardening, hardware roots-of-trust, and trusted or protected operations may be implemented in the edge computing node 750 through the TEE 790 and the processing units 752, 754.

The computing device 750 may be a server, appliance computing devices, and/or any other type of computing device with the various form factors discussed above. For example, the computing device 750 may be provided by an appliance computing device that is a self-contained electronic device including a housing, a chassis, a case, or a shell.

In an example, the instructions 782 provided via the memory 756, the storage 758, or the processing units 752, 754 may be embodied as a non-transitory, machine-readable medium 760 including code to direct the processor 752 to perform electronic operations in the edge computing node 750. The processing units 752, 754 may access the non-transitory, machine-readable medium 760 over the interconnect 755. For instance, the non-transitory, machine-readable medium 760 may be embodied by devices described for the storage 758 or may include specific storage units such as optical disks, flash drives, or any number of other hardware devices. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium 760 may include instructions to direct the processing units 752, 754 to perform a specific sequence or flow of actions, for example, as described with respect to the flowchart(s) and block diagram(s) of operations and functionality discussed herein. As used herein, the terms “machine-readable medium”, “machine-readable storage”, “computer-readable storage”, and “computer-readable medium” are interchangeable.

In further examples, a machine-readable medium also includes any tangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by a machine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present disclosure or that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying data structures utilized by or associated with such instructions. A “machine-readable medium” thus may include but is not limited to, solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media. The instructions embodied by a machine-readable medium may further be transmitted or received over a communications network using a transmission medium via a network interface device utilizing any one of a number of transfer protocols (e.g., HTTP).

A machine-readable medium may be provided by a storage device or other apparatus which is capable of hosting data in a non-transitory format. In an example, information stored or otherwise provided on a machine-readable medium may be representative of instructions, such as instructions themselves or a format from which the instructions may be derived. This format from which the instructions may be derived may include source code, encoded instructions (e.g., in compressed or encrypted form), packaged instructions (e.g., split into multiple packages), or the like. The information representative of the instructions in the machine-readable medium may be processed by processing circuitry into the instructions to implement any of the operations discussed herein. For example, deriving the instructions from the information (e.g., processing by the processing circuitry) may include: compiling (e.g., from source code, object code, etc.), interpreting, loading, organizing (e.g., dynamically or statically linking), encoding, decoding, encrypting, unencrypting, packaging, unpackaging, or otherwise manipulating the information into the instructions.

In an example, the derivation of the instructions may include assembly, compilation, or interpretation of the information (e.g., by the processing circuitry) to create the instructions from some intermediate or preprocessed format provided by the machine-readable medium. The information, when provided in multiple parts, may be combined, unpacked, and modified to create the instructions. For example, the information may be in multiple compressed source code packages (or object code, or binary executable code, etc.) on one or several remote servers.

In an example, a software distribution platform (e.g., one or more servers and one or more storage devices) may be used to distribute software, such as the example instructions discussed above, to one or more devices, such as example processor platform(s) and/or example connected edge devices noted above. The example software distribution platform may be implemented by any computer server, data facility, cloud service, etc., capable of storing and transmitting software to other computing devices. In some examples, the providing entity is a developer, a seller, and/or a licensor of software, and the receiving entity may be consumers, users, retailers, OEMs, etc., that purchase and/or license the software for use and/or re-sale and/or sub-licensing.

In an example, the instructions are stored on storage devices of the software distribution platform in a particular format. A format of computer readable instructions includes, but is not limited to a particular code language (e.g., Java, JavaScript, Python, C, C#, SQL, HTML, etc.), and/or a particular code state (e.g., uncompiled code (e.g., ASCII), interpreted code, linked code, executable code (e.g., a binary), etc.). In some examples, the computer readable instructions stored in the software distribution platform are in a first format when transmitted to an example processor platform(s). In some examples, the first format is an executable binary in which particular types of the processor platform(s) can execute. However, in some examples, the first format is uncompiled code that requires one or more preparation tasks to transform the first format to a second format to enable execution on the example processor platform(s). For instance, the receiving processor platform(s) may need to compile the computer readable instructions in the first format to generate executable code in a second format that is capable of being executed on the processor platform(s). In still other examples, the first format is interpreted code that, upon reaching the processor platform(s), is interpreted by an interpreter to facilitate execution of instructions.

Circuitry (e.g., processing circuitry) is a collection of circuits implemented in tangible entities of the computing device 750 that include hardware (e.g., simple circuits, gates, logic, etc.). Circuitry membership may be flexible over time. Circuitries include members that may, alone or in combination, perform specified operations when operating. In an example, hardware of the circuitry may be immutably designed to carry out a specific operation (e.g., hardwired). In an example, the hardware of the circuitry may include variably connected physical components (e.g., execution units, transistors, simple circuits, etc.) including a machine readable medium physically modified (e.g., magnetically, electrically, moveable placement of invariant massed particles, etc.) to encode instructions of the specific operation. In connecting the physical components, the underlying electrical properties of a hardware constituent are changed, for example, from an insulator to a conductor or vice versa. The instructions enable embedded hardware (e.g., the execution units or a loading mechanism) to create members of the circuitry in hardware via the variable connections to carry out portions of the specific operation when in operation. Accordingly, in an example, the machine readable medium elements are part of the circuitry or are communicatively coupled to the other components of the circuitry when the device is operating. In an example, any of the physical components may be used in more than one member of more than one circuitry. For example, under operation, execution units may be used in a first circuit of a first circuitry at one point in time and reused by a second circuit in the first circuitry, or by a third circuit in a second circuitry at a different time.

FIG. 8 depicts a system including a device for localized device attestation, according to an example. As illustrated, a networking infrastructure device 805 is connected to edge devices, such as a visual sensor 810 (e.g., camera) and a temperature sensor 815 (e.g., thermometer). The networking infrastructure device is also connected to a central facility 820 via a network node 825. The networking infrastructure device 805 includes processing circuitry, such as in a network processing unit, such as the network processing units described above (e.g., the IPU 610 illustrated in FIG. 6 ). In an example, the networking infrastructure device 805 is a switch, a router, or a gateway.

In operation, the processing circuitry of the networking infrastructure device 805 is configured to provide localized device attestation, for example, to the camera 810 and the thermometer 815, or other devices connected to the networking infrastructure device 805 (e.g., the network node 825). To this end, the processing circuitry is configured to receive a request to verify integrity of a device. For the following examples, the device will be the camera 810, although the same principles will apply to other devices, such as the thermometer. The request to verify the integrity of the device may come from an interested entity, such as the network node 825, or may come from the device itself, such as the camera 810. In an example, the request to verify the integrity of the device is a subscription from a second device, such as the central facility 820. Here, the second device registers an interest in the integrity results of the camera, for example, but does not provoke a verification at that time. Thereafter, whenever the integrity of the camera 810 is verified, the results are provided to the central facility 820. Such a subscription model entails a number of interested entities to simply register interest in the results. In this manner, manner actors, such as switches, gateways, etc. of the network may be apprised of failed integrity checks for devices managed by the networking infrastructure device 805.

The processing circuitry is configured to obtain a representation of device components of the device. Here, the representation is a secure technique for measuring or gauging the content of the represented component. Typically, for software, such as representation would be a secure hash of the software itself. For hardware, a secure identity, manufacturer key, or debug result hash may be used. This representation of components generally will be received from the target device. However, if the target device is compromised, the provided data may be untrustworthy. Accordingly, in an example, the representation of device components received from secure hardware on the device. Such secure hardware may include an enclave (e.g., trusted execution environment (TEE), trusted platform manager (TPM), or the like). In an example, in an example, the secure hardware is a network processing unit of the device. This last example provides a unique implementation in which the network processing unit of the camera 810, for example, provides the integrity data to the network processing unit of the networking infrastructure device 805, enabling an almost entirely network processing unit-based solution, leaving the hardware of the networking infrastructure device 805 and the camera 810 unburdened by the attestation procedure.

In an example, the representation of the device components is obtained in response to an event. The event may include expiration of a time period on the networking infrastructure device 805, such that the devices (e.g., camera 810 or thermometer 815) are polled. In an example, the event is a boot event of the device (e.g., camera 810). Here, the secure hardware or software of the camera 810 gather the device component representations when powered on. Other events for the camera 810 may include restoration to a full power state from a low-power state, a sensor detecting a housing breach, unlocking of a housing, etc.

The processing circuitry is configured to compare the representation of the device components to a reference value. Here, the reference value is resident on (e.g., local to) the networking infrastructure device 805 when the comparison is performed. In an example, the reference value is resident on the networking infrastructure device 805 when the request to verify the integrity of the device is received. When hashes are used, the comparison involves the matching of the hashes. When a vector is used, like dimensions in the two vectors are compared.

In an example, the networking infrastructure device 805 includes a database of reference values. In an example, each entry in the database corresponds to a device image. The device image is not a software image as commonly understood, rather, the device image represents the hardware or software of the device (e.g., camera 810) for comparison. In an example, the device image is a vector of values. Here, the vector includes multiple dimensions where each dimension is a single value. In an example, a dimension in the vector corresponds to a component of the device that is verified when the integrity of the device is verified. For example, the first dimension may be a CPU, the second dimension a memory device, a third dimension the operating system, and so forth.

In an example, a value in a dimension of the vector is a hash of the component. For software, the software may be hashed directly. For hardware, the hash may be derived from a serial number, device secret, or data (e.g., debug scan result) attesting to the integrity of the hardware. In an example, the processing circuitry is configured to receive a new entry to the data base from a remote attestation server (e.g., the central facility 820) and update the database with the new entry. This enables the networking infrastructure device 805 to verify device integrity while a connection to the remote attestation server is unavailable. In general, the maintenance of the database on the networking infrastructure device 805 provides a truly local attestation service. However, maintaining reference images in the central facility 820 eases management of these images across the deployment. Thus, the convenience of a central facility 820 is maintained while achieving the scalability provided by the local device attestation provided by the networking infrastructure device 805.

In an example, where the request to verify the integrity of the device is a subscription from a second device, the comparison of the representation of the device components and transmission of the response are based on obtaining the representation of the device components. This example notes a variety in processing timing. Here, the request ensures that whenever a comparison is performed, the results are transmitted to the subscribed entity. In an example, the comparison may be performed in response to the request, assuming that the representation of device components was previously obtained (e.g., sent to the networking infrastructure device 805 when the camera 810 became active). However, both the obtaining of the representation of the device components and the comparison may be performed in response to the receipt of the request.

The processing circuitry is configured to transmit a response to the request. Here, the response indicates that the integrity of the device is intact based on matching the representation of the device components and the reference value. Matching is a determined equivalence to a predefined threshold precision. In the case of cryptographic hashes, matching usually entails ensuring that every bit is the same between the operands. However, in other cases, such as a voltage measurement for a hardware device being used as the basis for comparison, a precision, or margin of error, may be defined such that two values within the threshold from each other are deemed matched.

In an example, the processing circuitry is configured to receive a second request to verify integrity of a second device (e.g., the thermometer 815). Then, a second representation of the second device components may be compared with a second reference value held by the networking infrastructure device 805. Based on a failure to match the second representation of the second device components and the second reference value, the traffic to or from the second device may be blocked. Here, the technique described above for device attestation is performed on the second device. However, because the match failed, the integrity of the device cannot be attested. Accordingly, the device is treated as compromised. When the networking infrastructure device 805 operates as access to other parts of the network, as illustrated, the networking infrastructure device 805 may take the remedial action of preventing traffic to or from the thermometer 815. Effectively, other entities will treat the thermometer 815 as unavailable and no malicious traffic will escape the networking infrastructure device 805.

FIG. 9 depicts an arrangement of an attestation service and attestation agent, according to an example. As illustrated, the IPU 905 includes an attestation service 910 (e.g., attestation hardware and software) to support edge-ward devices, such as the node 915. The node 915 includes an attestation agent 920. As related to the description above with respect to FIG. 8 , the attestation agent 920 may be implemented on an IPU of the node 915. In general, the attestation agents are secure enclaves of the devices that may be relied upon to deliver accurate representation of device components on the device. The cloud attestation service 925 provides for centralized management of attestation definitions (e.g., reference images) to the different attestation services distributed throughout the network.

The elements of the attestation service 910 are added to IPUs in the network to enable the IPUs to attest to the integrity of all the nodes under a local infrastructure—such as remote boot attestation or runtime integrity measurements—without considering connectivity to the cloud attestation service 925. The IPU 905 is secured in order to be a trusted device. This enables trust in the entire local network or sub-network managed by the IPU 905. When the IPU 905 is trusted, monitoring and management from the cloud attestation service 925 is simplified by limiting inquiries to the integrity of the IPU 905 instead of processing the raw TPM quotes, for example, of each sub-node.

In an example, the IPU 905 employs a hardware root-of-trust mechanism, such as TPM 2.0, to establish a trusted relation with the cloud attestation service 925, for example, via mutual authentication. An example of such as arrangement is the FIDO Device Onboarding specification. In an example, the trust management circuitry in the attestation service 910 performs this trust handshake with the cloud attestation service 925.

Once the trust of the IPU 905 is established, the IPU 905 may synchronize with the cloud attestation service 925 to obtain the latest version of the reference images for the required devices (e.g., node 915 and other nodes connected to the IPU 905). Generally, the resources (e.g., storage space or memory) of the IPU 905 is much smaller than that of the cloud attestation service. Accordingly, the IPU 905 may be unable to hold the entirety of available reference images. In this case, deployment type filtering may be employed to limit the reference images transferred to the IPU 905 to those that are actually connected to, or likely to be connected to, the IPU 905. The filtering may be based on information in the IPU 905, such as installation parameters, or sensed device characteristics of attached devices. After an initial synchronization, the IPU 905 may contact the cloud attestation service 925 when a new node is registered to the IPU 905 to obtain the reference image for the new device. Much as the IPU 905 establishes trust with the cloud attestation service 925, the node 915 establishes trust with the IPU 905 (e.g., via the trust management circuitry of the attestation service 910).

During useful life of the nodes, such as the node 915, the attestation agent 920, transmits remote boot attestation measurements to the IPU 905 when, for example, the node 915 is starting (e.g., booting). The attestation agent 920 may also periodically send runtime integrity attestation measurements during regular operation. This data (e.g., attestation measurements, TPM quotes, etc.) are compared to reference images (e.g., performed by the integrity verifier circuitry of the attestation service 910). When there is a mismatch, alerts or other actions are triggered to inform other network entities of the perceived integrity problem. In an example, the IPU 905 may act to, for example, communicate the integrity problem that to the cloud attestation service 925 (e.g., using the integrity publisher circuitry in the attestation service 910). In an example, entities, such as the other illustrated IPUs, may subscribe to integrity notifications (e.g., using the subscription management circuitry in the attestation service 910), to receive notifications. This may be helpful because detecting a lack of integrity may enable traffic to or from a specific node to be managed (e.g., blocked, quarantined, etc.).

The illustrated elements in the attestation service 910 may have the following configuration or operations. For example, the trust management circuitry is configured to establish trust with the cloud attestation service 925 and also to establish trust with nodes (e.g., the node 915). The trust management circuitry is configured to a local endpoint for the nodes (e.g., the node 915) to register—similar to the process were the node 915 to connect to the cloud attestation service 925—using a dynamic uniform resource locator (URL depending on IPU deployment. In an example, this is performed in accordance with the FIDO specification noted above.

The reference images management circuitry is configured to manage (e.g., store, track freshness, etc.) of reference images and corresponding lifecycles. In an example, the reference images management circuitry is configured to connect to IPU peers or the cloud attestation service 925 to perform reference image synchronization. In an example, the reference images management circuitry implements an interface to add, update, or delete a reference image. For example, to add a reference image, the interface accepts a reference image (e.g., a vector of hashes), a version for the reference image, or an associated project image type.

The integrity verifier circuitry is configured to operate as a distributed attestation server. This operation may include retrieval of needed reference images. In an example, the integrity verifier circuitry includes an interface to register a new device. This interface accepts an endpoint identification (ID) (e.g., media access control (MAC) address or Internet protocol (IP) address), a stack version, and a project image type (e.g., specific image or software stack per project). Generally, the project type will be enough to identify a reference image throughout the life of the reference image.

The integrity verifier circuitry may also include an interface to deregister devices being monitored and a third interface to ingest measurements sent by the nodes (e.g., the node 915). The ingest interface may accept an endpoint ID (e.g., MAC address or IP address), a measurement type (e.g., Boot Attestation or Runtime Attestation), and measurements data. The measurement data may include quotes, signatures, or digests representing the integrity state of the node. Generally, the measurement data includes a report of the value held by registers, as is the case in the TPM Platform Configuration Registers, produced by a trusted measurement process like Measured Boot, and signed by a trusted key or trusted keys, such as TPM Endorsement and Attestation Keys. The following snippet is an example of measurement data (e.g., a TPM 2.0 quote sample):

pers:

-   -   sha256:         -   0: 0xC9919F0BD5 . . .         -   1: 0xCDEE9E307F . . .         -   2: 0xE1C1E7A975 . . .         -   9: 0x122BC7E457 . . .         -   10: 0xCFCA12789F . . .

calcDigest: 2dad1bcdc21aa5ced . . .

msgDigest: e58264f391265dd4b3 . . .

sigBuffer: 6047fdf25053454e40 . . .

Table 1

The subscription management circuitry is configured to send event notifications to peers interested on integrity issues. The subscription management circuitry may include an interface that accepts an IPU URL, or other endpoint identifier to which to publish notifications.

The integrity publisher circuitry is configured to publish integrity notifications to the cloud attestation service 925, or other central facility, or to any subscribed peer. In an example, the integrity publisher circuitry is configured to limit published data to the IPU ID and node ID to enable identification of problem nodes without extraneous data (e.g., to limit network traffic and data processing at the receiving device).

In an example, when connectivity to the cloud attestation service 925 is unavailable, IPUs, such as the IPU 905, may be configured to share reference images. This enables a robust and resilient distributed and localized attestation in the network.

The illustrated arrangement enables virtually limitless scaling of integrity attestation via localizing the attestation operations. This arrangement considerably reduces the volume of data transmitted to the cloud attestation service 925 (or other centralized elements) by limiting communications beyond the IPU 905 to simple attestation results rather than the measurement data. Further, the integration of the attestation service 910 in the IPU 905 enables powerful integrity policy enforcements in the control plane managed by the IPUs, independent of the tenant nodes.

FIG. 10 depicts a method 1000 for localized device attestation, according to an example. The operations of the method 1000 are performed by computational hardware, such as that described above (e.g., a networked processing unit, a processor, or other circuitry).

At operation 1005, a request to verify integrity of a device is received (e.g., at a networking infrastructure device). In an example, the networking infrastructure device is an IPU included in a node of a network. In an example, the networking infrastructure device is a switch. In an example, is a router. In an example, the networking infrastructure device is a gateway. In an example, the request to verify the integrity of the device is a subscription from a second device.

At operation 1010, a representation of device components of the device is obtained. In an example, obtaining the representation of device components includes receiving the representation of the device components from secure hardware on the device in response to an event. In an example, the event is a boot event of the device. In an example, the secure hardware is an IPU of the device.

In an example, the networking infrastructure device includes a database of reference values. In an example, an entry in the database corresponds to a device image. In an example, the device image is a vector of values. In an example, a dimension in the vector corresponds to a component of the device that is verified when the integrity of the device is verified. In an example, a value in a dimension is a hash of the component. In an example, the method 1000 includes the operations of receiving a new entry to the data base from a remote attestation server, and updating the database with the new entry to enable verification of device integrity while a connection to the remote attestation server is unavailable.

At operation 1015, the representation of the device components is compared with a reference value. Here, the reference value is resident on (e.g., local to) the networking infrastructure device when the comparison is performed. In an example, the reference value is resident on the networking infrastructure device when the request to verify the integrity of the device is received. In an example, where the request to verify the integrity of the device is a subscription from a second device, the comparison of the representation of the device components and transmission of the response are based on obtaining the representation of the device components.

At operation 1020, a response to the request is transmitted. The response indicates that the integrity of the device is intact based on matching the representation of the device components and the reference value.

The method 1000 may be expanded to include the operation of receiving a second request to verify integrity of a second device. Then, a second representation of the second device components may be compared with a second reference value held by the networking infrastructure device. Based on a failure to match the second representation of the second device components and the second reference value, the traffic to or from the second device may be blocked.

Use Cases and Additional Examples

An IPU can be hosted in any of the tiers that go from device to cloud. Any compute platform that needs connectivity can potentially include an IPU. Some examples of places where IPUs can be placed are: Vehicles; Far Edge; Data center Edge; Cloud; Smart Cameras; Smart Devices.

Some of the use cases for a distributed IPU may include the following.

1) Service orchestrator (local, shared, remote, or distributed): Power, Workload perf, ambient temp prediction and optimization tuning and service orchestration not just locally but across distributed Edge Cloud

2) Infrastructure offload (for local machine)—same as traditional IPU use-cases to offload network, storage, host virtualization etc. but additional Edge Network Security Edge specific usages, Storage Edge specific usages, Virtualization Edge specific usages

3) IPU as a host to augment compute capacity (using ARM/x86 cores) for running edge specific “functions” on demand, integrated as API/Service or running as K8s worker node for certain types of services, side car proxies, security attestation services, scrubbing traffic for SASE/L7 inspection Firewall, Load balancer/Forward or reverse Proxy, Service Mesh side cars (for each POD running on local host) etc. 5G UPF and other RAN offloads Etc.

4) Trusted Security intermediary for attesting and orchestrating confidential computing enclaves on the host as well as any other connected CXL/PCI-E or interconnected XPU.

Additional examples of the presently described method, system, and device embodiments include the following, non-limiting implementations. Each of the following non-limiting examples may stand on its own or may be combined in any permutation or combination with any one or more of the other examples provided below or throughout the present disclosure.

Example 1 is a networking infrastructure device for localized device attestation, the networking infrastructure device comprising: a network interface; and processing circuitry that, when in operation, is configured to: receive, from the network interface, a request to verify integrity of a device; obtain a representation of device components of the device; compare the representation of the device components with a reference value held by the networking infrastructure device; and transmit a response to the request, the response indicating that the integrity of the device is intact based on matching the representation of the device components and the reference value.

In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the networking infrastructure device is a network processing unit included in a node of a network.

In Example 3, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-2, wherein the networking infrastructure device is a switch or gateway.

In Example 4, the subject matter of Example 3, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: receive a second request to verify integrity of a second device; compare a second representation of second device components with a second reference value held by the networking infrastructure device; and block traffic to or from the second device based on a failure to match the second representation of the second device components and the second reference value.

In Example 5, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-4, wherein the networking infrastructure device includes a database of reference values, an entry in the database corresponding with a device image.

In Example 6, the subject matter of Example 5, wherein the device image is a vector of values, a dimension in the vector corresponding to a component of the device that is verified when the integrity of the device is verified.

In Example 7, the subject matter of Example 6, wherein a value in a dimension is a hash of the component.

In Example 8, the subject matter of any of Examples 5-7, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: receive a new entry to the database from a remote attestation server; and update the database with the new entry to enable verification of device integrity while a connection to the remote attestation server is unavailable.

In Example 9, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-8, wherein, to obtain the representation of device components, the processing circuitry is configured to receive the representation of the device components from secure hardware on the device in response to an event.

In Example 10, the subject matter of Example 9, wherein the event is a boot event of the device.

In Example 11, the subject matter of any of Examples 9-10, wherein the secure hardware is a networked processing unit of the device.

In Example 12, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-11, wherein the request to verify the integrity of the device is a subscription from a second device; and wherein the comparison of the representation of the device components and transmission of the response are based on obtaining the representation of the device components.

Example 13 is a method for localized device attestation, the method comprising: receiving, at a networking infrastructure device, a request to verify integrity of a device; obtaining a representation of device components of the device; comparing the representation of the device components with a reference value held by the networking infrastructure device; and transmitting a response to the request, the response indicating that the integrity of the device is intact based on matching the representation of the device components and the reference value.

In Example 14, the subject matter of Example 13, wherein the networking infrastructure device is a network processing unit included in a node of a network.

In Example 15, the subject matter of any of Examples 13-14, wherein the networking infrastructure device is a switch or gateway.

In Example 16, the subject matter of Example 15, comprising: receiving a second request to verify integrity of a second device; comparing a second representation of second device components with a second reference value held by the networking infrastructure device; and blocking traffic to or from the second device based on a failure to match the second representation of the second device components and the second reference value.

In Example 17, the subject matter of any of Examples 13-16, wherein the networking infrastructure device includes a database of reference values, an entry in the database corresponding with a device image.

In Example 18, the subject matter of Example 17, wherein the device image is a vector of values, a dimension in the vector corresponding to a component of the device that is verified when the integrity of the device is verified.

In Example 19, the subject matter of Example 18, wherein a value in a dimension is a hash of the component.

In Example 20, the subject matter of any of Examples 17-19, comprising: receiving a new entry to the database from a remote attestation server; and updating the database with the new entry to enable verification of device integrity while a connection to the remote attestation server is unavailable.

In Example 21, the subject matter of any of Examples 13-20, wherein obtaining the representation of device components includes receiving the representation of the device components from secure hardware on the device in response to an event.

In Example 22, the subject matter of Example 21, wherein the event is a boot event of the device.

In Example 23, the subject matter of any of Examples 21-22, wherein the secure hardware is a networked processing unit of the device.

In Example 24, the subject matter of any of Examples 13-23, wherein the request to verify the integrity of the device is a subscription from a second device; and wherein the comparison of the representation of the device components and transmission of the response are based on obtaining the representation of the device components.

Example 25 is at least one machine readable medium including instructions for localized device attestation, the instructions, when executed by processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations comprising: receiving, at a networking infrastructure device, a request to verify integrity of a device; obtaining a representation of device components of the device; comparing the representation of the device components with a reference value held by the networking infrastructure device; and transmitting a response to the request, the response indicating that the integrity of the device is intact based on matching the representation of the device components and the reference value.

In Example 26, the subject matter of Example 25, wherein the networking infrastructure device is a networked processing unit included in a node of a network.

In Example 27, the subject matter of any of Examples 25-26, wherein the networking infrastructure device is a switch or gateway.

In Example 28, the subject matter of Example 27, wherein the operations comprise: receiving a second request to verify integrity of a second device; comparing a second representation of second device components with a second reference value held by the networking infrastructure device; and blocking traffic to or from the second device based on a failure to match the second representation of the second device components and the second reference value.

In Example 29, the subject matter of any of Examples 25-28, wherein the networking infrastructure device includes a database of reference values, an entry in the database corresponding with a device image.

In Example 30, the subject matter of Example 29, wherein the device image is a vector of values, a dimension in the vector corresponding to a component of the device that is verified when the integrity of the device is verified.

In Example 31, the subject matter of Example 30, wherein a value in a dimension is a hash of the component.

In Example 32, the subject matter of any of Examples 29-31, wherein the operations comprise: receiving a new entry to the database from a remote attestation server; and updating the database with the new entry to enable verification of device integrity while a connection to the remote attestation server is unavailable.

In Example 33, the subject matter of any of Examples 25-32, wherein obtaining the representation of device components includes receiving the representation of the device components from secure hardware on the device in response to an event.

In Example 34, the subject matter of Example 33, wherein the event is a boot event of the device.

In Example 35, the subject matter of any of Examples 33-34, wherein the secure hardware is a networked processing unit of the device.

In Example 36, the subject matter of any of Examples 25-35, wherein the request to verify the integrity of the device is a subscription from a second device; and wherein the comparison of the representation of the device components and transmission of the response are based on obtaining the representation of the device components.

Example 37 is a system for localized device attestation, the system comprising: means for receiving, at a networking infrastructure device, a request to verify integrity of a device; means for obtaining a representation of device components of the device; means for comparing the representation of the device components with a reference value held by the networking infrastructure device; and means for transmitting a response to the request, the response indicating that the integrity of the device is intact based on matching the representation of the device components and the reference value.

In Example 38, the subject matter of Example 37, wherein the networking infrastructure device is a networked processing unit included in a node of a network.

In Example 39, the subject matter of any of Examples 37-38, wherein the networking infrastructure device is a switch or gateway.

In Example 40, the subject matter of Example 39, comprising: means for receiving a second request to verify integrity of a second device; means for comparing a second representation of second device components with a second reference value held by the networking infrastructure device; and means for blocking traffic to or from the second device based on a failure to match the second representation of the second device components and the second reference value.

In Example 41, the subject matter of any of Examples 37-40, wherein the networking infrastructure device includes a database of reference values, an entry in the database corresponding with a device image.

In Example 42, the subject matter of Example 41, wherein the device image is a vector of values, a dimension in the vector corresponding to a component of the device that is verified when the integrity of the device is verified.

In Example 43, the subject matter of Example 42, wherein a value in a dimension is a hash of the component.

In Example 44, the subject matter of any of Examples 41-43, comprising: means for receiving a new entry to the database from a remote attestation server; and means for updating the database with the new entry to enable verification of device integrity while a connection to the remote attestation server is unavailable.

In Example 45, the subject matter of any of Examples 37-44, wherein the means for obtaining the representation of device components include means for receiving the representation of the device components from secure hardware on the device in response to an event.

In Example 46, the subject matter of Example 45, wherein the event is a boot event of the device.

In Example 47, the subject matter of any of Examples 45-46, wherein the secure hardware is a networked processing unit of the device.

In Example 48, the subject matter of any of Examples 37-47, wherein the request to verify the integrity of the device is a subscription from a second device; and wherein the comparison of the representation of the device components and transmission of the response are based on obtaining the representation of the device components.

Example 49 is at least one machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations to implement of any of Examples 1-48.

Example 50 is an apparatus comprising means to implement of any of Examples 1-48.

Example 51 is a system to implement of any of Examples 1-48.

Example 52 is a method to implement of any of Examples 1-48.

Although these implementations have been described concerning specific exemplary aspects, it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these aspects without departing from the broader scope of the present disclosure. Many of the arrangements and processes described herein can be used in combination or in parallel implementations that involve terrestrial network connectivity (where available) to increase network bandwidth/throughput and to support additional edge services. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The accompanying drawings that form a part hereof show, by way of illustration, and not of limitation, specific aspects in which the subject matter may be practiced. The aspects illustrated are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed herein. Other aspects may be utilized and derived therefrom, such that structural and logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. This Detailed Description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of various aspects is defined only by the appended claims, along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

Such aspects of the inventive subject matter may be referred to herein, individually and/or collectively, merely for convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of this application to any single aspect or inventive concept if more than one is disclosed. Thus, although specific aspects have been illustrated and described herein, it should be appreciated that any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific aspects shown. This disclosure is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of various aspects. Combinations of the above aspects and other aspects not specifically described herein will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A networking infrastructure device for localized device attestation, the networking infrastructure device comprising: a network interface; and processing circuitry that, when in operation, is configured to: receive, from the network interface, a request to verify integrity of a device; obtain a representation of device components of the device; compare the representation of the device components with a reference value held by the networking infrastructure device; and transmit a response to the request, the response indicating that the integrity of the device is intact based on matching the representation of the device components and the reference value.
 2. The networking infrastructure device of claim 1, wherein the networking infrastructure device is a network processing unit included in a node of a network.
 3. The networking infrastructure device of claim 1, wherein the networking infrastructure device is a switch or gateway.
 4. The networking infrastructure device of claim 3, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: receive a second request to verify integrity of a second device; compare a second representation of second device components with a second reference value held by the networking infrastructure device; and block traffic to or from the second device based on a failure to match the second representation of the second device components and the second reference value.
 5. The networking infrastructure device of claim 1, wherein the networking infrastructure device includes a database of reference values, an entry in the database corresponding with a device image.
 6. The networking infrastructure device of claim 5, wherein the device image is a vector of values, a dimension in the vector corresponding to a component of the device that is verified when the integrity of the device is verified.
 7. The networking infrastructure device of claim 6, wherein a value in a dimension is a hash of the component.
 8. The networking infrastructure device of claim 5, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: receive a new entry to the database from a remote attestation server; and update the database with the new entry to enable verification of device integrity while a connection to the remote attestation server is unavailable.
 9. The networking infrastructure device of claim 1, wherein, to obtain the representation of device components, the processing circuitry is configured to receive the representation of the device components from secure hardware on the device in response to an event.
 10. The networking infrastructure device of claim 9, wherein the event is a boot event of the device.
 11. The networking infrastructure device of claim 9, wherein the secure hardware is a networked processing unit of the device.
 12. The networking infrastructure device of claim 1, wherein the request to verify the integrity of the device is a subscription from a second device; and wherein the comparison of the representation of the device components and transmission of the response are based on obtaining the representation of the device components.
 13. At least one non-transitory machine readable medium including instructions for localized device attestation, the instructions, when executed by processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations comprising: receiving, at a networking infrastructure device, a request to verify integrity of a device; obtaining a representation of device components of the device; comparing the representation of the device components with a reference value held by the networking infrastructure device; and transmitting a response to the request, the response indicating that the integrity of the device is intact based on matching the representation of the device components and the reference value.
 14. The least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the networking infrastructure device is a networked processing unit included in a node of a network.
 15. The least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the networking infrastructure device is a switch or gateway.
 16. The least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations comprise: receiving a second request to verify integrity of a second device; comparing a second representation of second device components with a second reference value held by the networking infrastructure device; and blocking traffic to or from the second device based on a failure to match the second representation of the second device components and the second reference value.
 17. The least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the networking infrastructure device includes a database of reference values, an entry in the database corresponding with a device image.
 18. The least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the device image is a vector of values, a dimension in the vector corresponding to a component of the device that is verified when the integrity of the device is verified.
 19. The least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 18, wherein a value in a dimension is a hash of the component.
 20. The least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the operations comprise: receiving a new entry to the database from a remote attestation server; and updating the database with the new entry to enable verification of device integrity while a connection to the remote attestation server is unavailable. 